Journal of the SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY
A preview of the papers appearing in the February 2007 issue of theJournal of the SID. To obtain access to these articles on-line, please go to www.sid.org
Edited by Aris Silzars
Janine Buseman-Williams Kyle D. Frischknecht Matt D. Hubert Ameen K. Saafir James D. Tremel
DuPont Displays, U.S.A.
Abstract — The encapsulation of organic light-emitting layers is a key development item on the roadmap to OLED commercialization and needs to be resolved in order to compete with the incumbent LCD technology. DuPont™ Drylox™ cover glass is a product developed by DuPont Displays to improve the features of the OLED encapsulation solution. Thin displays, low design cycle time, and substantial reduction in encapsulation cost are the driving forces for the product improvement. The permeation theory will be discussed, a manufacturing method will be described, and the performance characteristics achieved to date will be documented.
One major difference between the packaging and encapsulation of LCDs and OLEDs is the need to encapsulate OLEDs with a desiccant in order to prevent the degradation of the light-emitting stack from the ingression of moisture and oxygen. Because of the desiccant requirement, OLED cover glass must have its cavities machined (etched or sandblasted) to house the desiccant and prevent incidental contact with the active area of the display. The cavity along with the physical desiccant accounted for approximately 10–20% of the OLED-display cost on the pilot line using 1.1-mm soda-lime cavity glass and zeolite tablets. DuPont Displays, Inc. (DDI) developed Dry-lox™ cover glass to lower the cost of encapsulation without sacrificing display performance or cycle time.
Kunal S Girotra Yong-Mo Choi Byoung-June Kim Young-Rok Song Beomrak Choi Sung-Hoon Yang Shiyul Kim Soonkwon Lim
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Abstract — A 14.1-in. AMOLED display using nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) TFTs has been developed. Nanocrystalline silicon was deposited using conventional 13.56-MHz plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Detailed thin-film characterization of nc-Si films was followed by development of nc-Si TFTs, which demonstrate a field-effect mobility of about 0.6–1.0 cm2/V-sec. The nc-Si TFTs show no significant shift in threshold voltage when over 700 hours of constant current stress is applied, indicating a stable TFT backplane. The nc-Si TFTs were successfully integrated into a 14.1-in. AMOLED display. The display shows no significant current decrease in the driving TFT of the 2T-1cap circuit because the TFTs are highly stable. In addition to the improved lifetime of AMOLED displays, the development of nc-Si TFTs using a conventional 13.56-MHz PECVD system offers considerable cost advantages over other laser and non-laser polysilicon-TFT technologies for large-sized AMOLEDs.
The fabricated nc-Si TFT had a conventional bottom-gate TFT structure with a three-layered structure of silicon nitride (SiNx)/nc-Si/n+Si. The gate and source/drain metal layers were Al/Mo and Mo/Al/Mo, respectively, with IZO as the pixel material. A standard TFT process with a five-mask-step photolithography process similar to that for TFTs in AMLCDs was used. Figure 4 describes a standard bottom-gate nc-Si TFT structure.
Se-Jin Jang Jong-Wook Jung Hak-Rin Kim Min Young Jin You-Jin Lee Jae-Hoon Kim
Hanyang University
Abstract — A pixel-isolated liquid-crystal (PILC) mode for enhancing the mechanical stability of flexible-display applications is proposed. Because liquid-crystal (LC) molecules in this mode are isolated in each pixel by patterned or phase-separated microstructures, and the two substrates are tightly attached to each other by a solidified polymer layer, the LC alignment is stable against external pressure, and the cell gap of our structure is uniformly preserved against bending deformation of the plastic substrates. The mechanical stability of the PILC structure having plastic substrates was tested for its electro-optic properties.
Ryo Sakurai Shingo Ohno Shin-ichi Kita Yoshitomo Masuda Reiji Hattori
Bridgestone Corp.
Abstract — Color displays and flexible displays that use electronic liquid powder have been developed. Novel types of color displays using either a colored powder or a color filter are discussed. A flexible display with low-cost substrate films with a high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing method has also been developed. These technologies enable a QR-LPD to be widely used as an electronic-paper display.
Tokuju Oikawa Shoji Yasuda Kazuhiko Takeuchi Eiichi Sakai Hiroyuki Mori
FUJIFILM Corp.
Abstract — A new optical compensation film refered to as WV-EA film for TN-mode TFT-LCDs has been developed, resulting in higher contrast ratio, wider-viewing-angle characteristics, and improved color shift than their predecessors, especially in the horizontal direction. These features of the new WV film were achieved as a result of haze reduction and optimizing the optical characteristics of the polymerized discotic material layer and TAC film. These features are suitable for large-sized and wide-aspect-ratio LCD monitors and TVs.
A pair of WV film consists of TAC film and a hybrid alignment structure composed of a polymerized discotic material layer. The polymerized discotic material layer is refered to as a "PDM" layer in this paper. It is designed that TAC film and the PDM layer totally compensates the on-state TN-LC layer. The TN LC layer in the on-state has a complicated alignment structure because the direction of the director continuously changes in the thickness direction. This structure cannot be expressed by a single-index ellipsoid. The WV film corresponds to the alignment structure of the on-state TN-LC layer. And, thus, the WV film three dimensionally compensates for it. This compensation con-figuration minimizes light leakage at all incident angles.
D. Kajita I. Hiyama Y. Utsumi K. Miyazaki M. Hasegawa M. Ishii
Hitachi, Ltd.
Abstract — A 32-in. IPS-LCD with a significantly wide-viewing-angle performance has been developed using a new optical compensation method. It provides a contrast ratio of over 80:1 at all viewing angles, which enhances its color saturation at oblique angles. According to this study, it is important to shorten the path of the optical compensation in the Poincaré sphere. An effective method using two retardation films, one with an Nz value larger than 0.5 and one with a value smaller than 0.5, was found.
Po-Sheng Shih Wei-Hsin Wang Hsuan-Lin Pan Kei-Hsiung Yang
HannStar Display Corp.
A 15-in. XGA TFT-LCD panel using BVA-mode technology has been developed. A photograph of a pixel is shown in Fig. 9. It is clear that the disclination line due to an insufficient bias voltage is not observed, confirming the validity of BVA mode. The viewing angle (CR > 10) is over 160°. The ON/OFF response time is about 20 msec, on the same order as that for the MVA or PVA modes. The ON and OFF voltages are 6.2 and 1.3 V, respectively, during the measurement.
Tohru Nishibe Hiroki Nakamura
Toshiba Matsushita DisplayTechnology Co., Ltd.
Abstract — Low-temperature polycrystalline-silicon (LTPS) TFT-LCDs are on their way to becoming advanced displays, which will lead to the use of system-on-glass (SOG) technology. Improvement in poly-Si TFT performance is essential in order for them to become value-added displays, where circuits for various functions are integrated onto the substrate. In this paper, the key processes of the applications for future displays will be described, including the recent development of SOG.
SOG technology has the potential of integrating the input function as well as the output function of a display, which will pave the way for advanced future displays. A key device for functional integration is a poly-Si photosensor system which can be applied to almost all possible applications, and it is desirable that the photosensor has a common manufacturing process with the conventional TFT array. The reason why we selected the photosensor system is that it has advantages over competitive systems such as a pressure sensor system or a capacitive sensor system.
Takashi Miyoshi Tokuya Kozaki Tomoya Yanamoto Yasushi Fujimura Shin-ichi Nagahama Takashi Mukai
Nichia Corp.
Abstract — High-output-power blue (445 nm) laser diodes (LDs) with an output power of 500 mW have been successfully fabricated. The operating current, voltage, and wall-plug efficiency of these LDs were 480 mA, 4.8 V, and 21.7%, respectively. The lifetime of these LDs was estimated to be 10,000 hours under continuous-wave operation at 25°C. From examination of the degradation mode, it was found that the operating current seriously affects the lifetime of LDs. In the next stage, the optimization and sophistication of the manufacturing processes to fabricate longer-lifetime (>30,000 hours) blue LDs will be focused on.
Takamitsu Isono Takeshi Fukuda Kouji Nakagawa Reo Usui Ryohei Satoh Eiji Morinaga Yu Mihara
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Abstract — SnO2 is considered to be a promising alternative material for indium tin oxide (ITO), which is used for thin-film transparent electrodes in flat-panel displays (FPDs) and is facing a serious indium-depletion problem. However, annealing processes in the manufacture of plasma-display panels (PDPs), which are major FPDs, cause high resistivity in SnO2 films. To obtain lower resistivity after the annealing processes, the relationship between deposition conditions and resistivity and the influences of annealing on resistivity, both theoretically and experimentally, were investigated. As a solution, a method involving the formation of a coating of SiO2 on SnO2 is proposed, and a SnO2 resistivity as low as 6.60 x 10–5 Ω-m was obtained after annealing.
FIGURE 1 — Depletion times of indium. (Current scenario: for the case of only further zinc mining; Scenario I: for the case of both further zinc mining and recycling; Scenario II: for the case of reduction of contained amount and utilization of alternative materials, in addition to Scenario I).